Black Thunder

Jamaican // Jamaica

Biography

Black Thunder is one of Jamaica’s Reggae Greats and he has and continue to enjoy as much success at home as well as overseas. Black Thunder who lives in Lilliput, St. James has and continue to do live shows in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Japan, Canada, USA and African countries such as Zimbabwe and Gambia.

Christened Cecil Taylor, Black Thunder actually was born in May Pen, Clarendon. His father was called Thunder and he Thunder 2. On his musical journey, he called himself Black Thunder in a bid to raise awareness to his arrival. However, only a few people locally took any notice of his emergence on the entertainment landscape .
Black Thunder was bitten by the reggae bug (so to speak) from as early as six years old. After learning to play the guitar and sitting in limbo for some time waiting for his ship to sail in, he bade Clarendon goodbye and travelled to the railway station where he was told that Montego Bay was the last stop the train would make. That suited him fine. With his guitar strung over his shoulder and just enough money ($60.00) for his trip on the train, he set off.

Still don’t know where he was going, he began to ask questions. He said he remembered that some of his friends had braved a trip to Montego Bay under similar circumstances, and so he set out to find them. He learned that they were holed up in a community called Salt Spring and by asking questions along the way, he finally caught up with them and they showed him true compatriotism.

Soon some fortune began to visit him and his first gig was in Ironshore where he was invited to play for some tourists. The first song he did, got an overwhelming response, he recalls, which was an original composition called “Working On A Train”. He supplemented this song with a few Bob Marleys but a larger number of Peter Tosh hits as well.

As his name became popular in the hotel circuit, a few hotels and night spots sought his service including Sandals and the Taste Of Honey Restaurant & Club on Kent Avenue. Cecil Sinclair, the owner of Super Love Productions, was the first Montego Bay producer to spot his talent and contracted him to do three recordings on his record label. Later, Peter Baugh’s “Tourtown Records” got him to record a few songs for him which he did in combination with the Montego Bay group who called themselves the Kingstonians.

His next stop was in Negril where he did a stint with Roots Bamboo and sang to some tourists on the famed 9-mile beach. By the emergence of the 90s, he became a dreadlocksed reggae singer and he launched out with the Positive Vibes Band. Today, Black Thunder his not only a guitarist alone but an accomplished drummer and keyboardist. He has sworn that he will continue to sing clean and cultural music to uplift decent folks. “Because I don’t sing the gutter lyrics which degrade women or glorify bad men and gangsters, I tend to get stifled,” said Thunder.The Positive Vibes band had great connections with the outside world and got their first international show in Haiti where they were asked to do backing duties for Beenie Man and some other Shocking Vibes artistes such as Silver Cat and Little Kirk.

With the Positive Vibes band, Black Thunder has provided back-up duties for Vybz Kartel, Ghost, Josey Wales and Joseph Hill & Culture in Grenada. On the continent of Africa they first made a tour of Gambia and Senegal to provide back up duties for Frankie Paul. The president of Gambia invited them to perform at the National Stadium to commemorate his birthday.

In 2011 Black Thunder released his debut album called Reggae Warriors and his sophomore album “World Crisis” in 2013 both of which he has been promoting world wide while on tour.